Justin Baldoni has filed an amended version of his $400 million defamation suit accusing Blake Lively of giving The New York Times advance access to her sexual harassment complaint – after a stunning DailyMail.com discovery. The alleged head-start gave the Gray Lady’s staffers time to prep a 4,000-word article with photos, graphics and excerpts from the explosive filing which Lively submitted to the California Civil Rights department on December 20.

The #metoo style takedown - entitled ‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine - was published the following day as a major exclusive detailing how the Gossip Girl alum was hit with a negative PR blitz when she complained about Baldoni’s on-set behavior. But - as DailyMail.com reported – the online version of the story also contained buried clues in its metadata that suggested the outlet’s reporters had been working on it for much longer than a day.

These included a composite page ‘topper’ image of the It Ends with Us co-stars which had the date ‘2024-12-16’ embedded into its code. Our discovery was just the tip of the iceberg, according to an amended complaint filed by Baldoni's team late Friday, which says they have proof the Times started work on its scoop as far back as October. Justin Baldoni has filed an amended version of his $400 million defamation suit accusing Blake Lively of giving The New York Times advance access to her sexual harassment complaint – after a stunning DailyMail.com discovery; seen in December 2024.

A technical feature first spotted by internet sleuths and described as a ‘message-embed-generator’ can be found within the article’s source code with the date ‘2024-10-31’, according to the filing. The finding left many convinced the outlet and Lively were plotting for 'for him several months' before she dropped her bombshell complaint against him just five days before Christmas. ‘Of course, it may be the case that the New York Times just happened to load a new tool for embedding text messages within an article as part of routine system upgrades, only to stumble six weeks later upon the perfect opportunity to show off this new graphic tool in an article that relied heavily upon cherry-picked and misleadingly reframed text messages,’ it alleges.

‘But the simpler explanation is that the New York Times had already begun building its defamatory Article no later than October 31, 2024, including developing a slick new graphic display module to prominently feature the misleadingly edited and context-stripped text messages centered in the Article.’. The amended suit also takes aim at a promotional video created for the Times article that promised its readers: ‘This story reveals a new playbook for waging a far-reaching and largely undetectable smear campaign in the digital age.’.

Baldoni’s team says it has a December 12 date in its web URL indicating it was another pre-packaged element made in advance of the California filing date. Any such material, they argue, would not enjoy the usual legal protections afforded to reporters who are quoting from published legal documents. As their filing explains: ‘It may seem unsurprising and even respectable that a news organization should work for weeks or months before publishing a purported investigative report.

‘But the significance of the timing of these elements of the defamatory Article is that they strip away the legal shields that Lively, the Times, and the other Lively Parties were likely relying on to protect their malicious acts of defamation, such as the litigation privilege and the fair reporting privilege.’. Baldoni amended suit suggests The New York Times' story contained buried clues in its metadata that suggested the outlet’s reporters had been working on it for much longer than a day (Blake Lively seen last year).

Their amended suit also adds an updated timeline going back to January 1, 2019, when Baldoni first emailed Colleen Hoover, the author of It Ends with Us, about turning her acclaimed book into a movie. It includes his communications with both Lively and her megastar husband Ryan Reynolds, as well as details of the release and reaction to It Ends with US, and every development in the ensuing legal battle.

Lively, 37 and Baldoni, 40, gelled beautifully on screen for the 2024 adaptation of Hoover’s acclaimed novel exploring domestic violence and emotional abuse, which became a surprise hit at the box office, grossing $351 million. But dueling lawsuits have since revealed how relations soured as Lively allegedly fought Baldoni for greater artistic control and started to feel increasingly uncomfortable during their intimate scenes.